Assessment of Disabled Students in Higher Education: Current public policy issues

Abstract

Although there are over 68,000 disabled students in higher education programmes in the UK, a laissez-faire policy has been adapted regarding the provision of assessment services for these students, with a result that there have been no statutory duties for these programmes not to discriminate against them. With the introduction of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001) amending Part IV of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), it would be timely to consider assessment related issues and benefits from the experiences of the US higher education programmes and educational testing agencies in this area since the mid-1970s. This paper argues that it is the academic achievement of disabled students that should be measured by the assessment services, not their disabilities. Without the provision of reasonable assessment adjustments, as the research shows, it is inevitable that disabilities of disabled students would be measured not their academic achievements, contrary to the main argument put forward by Sharp and Earle (2000) among others. The paper argues for a historical role for the educators and administrators of higher education programmes in eliminating discrimination against disabled students in provision of assessment services at every stage of their studies in the long run.